Tuesday, January 06, 2009

As expected, Former Senator Norm Coleman filed suit in Minnesota to stop Senator-elect Al Franken from being certified as winner of the Senate election:

Republican Norm Coleman, who received 225 fewer votes than DFLer Al Franken in the U.S. Senate recount, will challenge the result in court. He told reporters at a state Capitol news conference that a lawsuit, known as an election contest, would proceed.

Coleman said he respects the process but added: "Let's take the time to get it right." He said every vote should be counted, but only once, and that uniform standards must be applied, previewing what are expected to be central themes of his court case.

Shortly before Coleman spoke, his campaign said the lawsuit would be filed in Ramsey County shortly after 3 p.m..

The Coleman campaign's complaint shows that they intend to fight on: the allegations that absentee ballots in 25 selected precincts were counted twice to Franken's benefit; the decision of the state canvassing board to revert to election night totals in a pro-Franken precinct where they lost one of five numbered envelopes, containing 133 ballots; to work to get rejected absentee ballots counted that local officials from around Minnesota, in both blue and red counties, have re-examined and say were properly thrown out; and to contest the inclusion of those 930 absentee ballots that were counted this past weekend -- which their own campaign agreed to have counted under a careful bargain.

Elias did say, though, that there's one thing he hadn't heard before: The Coleman campaign wants to have ballots thrown out in cases where the election officials neglected to properly initial them.

While Illinois Senator-designee Roland Burris is meeting with Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday, the first Democratic Senator has come out in favor of Burris being seated:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein rejected the reasoning that all of the chamber's Democrats, herself included, had cited in a letter last week — that corruption charges against Burris' patron, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, tainted his appointment.

"Does the governor have the power, under law, to make the appointment? And the answer is yes," said Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, which judges the credentials of senators...."If you don't seat Mr. Burris, it has ramifications for gubernatorial appointments all over America," the California senator said. "Mr. Burris is a senior, experienced politician. He has been attorney general, he has been controller, and he is very well-respected. I am hopeful that this will be settled.